


Five Days

by FernDavant



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 11:19:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13165833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FernDavant/pseuds/FernDavant
Summary: Immediately following the events of The Last Jedi, the Resistance tries to start over.





	Five Days

The whole resistance piles on to the _Falcon_. It’s a tight fit, standing room only, really, but the fact that it’s doable at all is troublesome. Leia has coordinates for them to run too—a rebel base older and smaller even than the one before—and they’re off.

**Day One**

They do a census. 4 pilots, 9 officers, 6 flight technicians, 7 communication technicians, 16 soldiers, 9 beings of various skillsets that have no set position or career path, one Wookie smuggler, one ex-stormtrooper, and one last Jedi.

This base is indeed older and smaller than the one before, but it is no easier to find the manpower to keep operations going in the base. Connix starts the distress signal again, even as everyone does their best not to seem distressed.

Poe isn’t worried about the state of the pilot corp. There are some pilots on missions who haven’t been recalled yet. Besides, he has a list of old friends, and an unwavering sense of optimism.

The only things he doesn’t have are a ship or flight clearance from General Organa. This doesn’t bother him either; he merely sends very specific orders with the pilot tasked with flying the scouting missions for the area.

(Rey hopes Poe notices the smile General Organa is giving him.)

Rey has no time to catch up with Finn, as almost immediately him and Chewbacca are sent on a mission to get supplies in the nearby star system.

It seems only moments ago that they were hugging hello, only for them to know be hugging farewell again.

“Look after Rose,” Finn whispers into her ear, his breath hot against her cheek. “If she wakes up, tell her…tell her I’m fine, and I’ll talk to her soon.”

And then Rey goes in for a de-briefing with General Organa.

Rey isn’t military. She isn’t anything—just Rey. She doesn’t know what to expect from a debriefing. Her first meeting with General Organa had been a perfunctory thing, but now Rey is alone with the other woman for the first time.

She is not intimidated. She feels strangely…prepared. Rey takes a breath and says, “He’s gone.” It is the first thing that comes to mind for her to say, and Rey has always relied on her instincts.

“Yes,” the general replies.

Rey is beginning to better sense those who are also Force-sensitive. “I’m sorry. He was—”

“My brother.”

This wasn’t in the stories, the ones of the rebellion that were told over and over again on Jakku. The ones she retold with dolls made from scrap and bits of hair.

General Organa—no, Leia—is watching her very carefully. This is a test, Rey realizes. Because if Luke’s her brother…then Vader’s _her_ father, too.

But that doesn’t matter to Rey. People are the sum of their deeds.

She’d been forgetting that recently, but now…now she sees.

Leia nods to herself after a bit. “What did he teach you?”

Nothing. Everything. “I think I taught him.”

Leia laughs. It’s watery. “But what did he teach you?”

Rey thinks. “Not to run away.”

“Then we won’t,” Leia replies. She seems pleased with this answer. In her own way, Leia is testing Rey as much as Luke ever tested her.

Leia makes a move to dismiss her then stops the gesture short. “My son…”

“Is dead,” Rey says, and it is painful, but it is, ultimately, the truth. Only the Supreme Leader lives.

“I thought he might be.” Leia clenches a fist. The jewels on her ringed fingers glint in the light, creating patterns that Rey feels like she could get lost in. “Thank you for trying.”

And with that, the briefing really is over.

**Day Two**

“Admiral Holdo sounds _terrible_ ,” Rey says, and there are several awkward faces, Poe’s included.

17 pilots have been, or are in the process of being, recalled. (“Black Squadron rides again,” Poe had crowed).

Poe has been explaining to her everything that happened while she was gone (from his perspective, at least—Rose Tico is still recovering, and Finn is, of course, still away).

Poe opens and shuts his mouth once or twice, gives an awkward smile, then says, “She did what she thought she had to in order to protect the fleet.”

“She didn’t let you in on the plan, which ended up causing the mutiny, which ended up causing the plan to fail.”

“She didn’t have to tell me anything.”

“Then why not tell Connix? Or Holk? Or Tynan or—”

“She died a hero,” Poe says, and Rey claps her mouth shut. She was being impolite, then. “And if we cannot celebrate our heroes, then we’re as bad as the First Order.”

Rey isn’t sure she _entirely_ believes what Poe is saying, but she believes enough of it to drink to that.

She only gets a few sips in of the bitter homebrewed grain alcohol (because as soon as a Resistance base appears, there also shall a Resistance brew appear) when she hears that Rose has woken up.

Rose is confused and scared and wants nothing more than to talk to Finn. Rey wonders if this is what Finn was like when he woke up. (Poe looks at her over Rose’s cot and says, “Yeah,” like he can read her mind).

“Hey,” Rey says. And, “It’s okay. Finn’s fine. He’s gone on an important mission. He’s going to talk to you soon.”

“And you are?” Rose asks. It’s not demanding or judgmental. Just confused.

“I’m Rey. Just Rey.”

Rose’s mouth drops open. “Wow.”

And that’s how Rey discovers she’s famous.

**Day Three**

Finn comes in at 0300 or 0400 (Rey couldn’t tell you which—she doesn’t know how to tell military time, and she doesn’t know what sort of hours system this planet uses besides).

Rey’s been awake for hours before that anyway. She could sense Finn as soon as he made it back into the planetary system and the _excitement_ of it made sleep an impossibility. She hugs him again, as soon as she sees him. She never wants to let go, but knows she has to.

Finn (and Chewie) have good news. Supplies and a few new friends, including a much-needed medic.

“Do you think we can trust them?” Finn asks Rey, understandably wary.

But Chewie seems to trust them, and as far as Rey can tell, he’s a good judge of character. The newcomers are all the type of folk that don’t ask too many questions, but they have no love for the First Order.

Leia is the last say on the matter, and she seems to trust them all, at least enough to order practically everyone to get a medical checkup, something that they’d been woefully unable to do recently. Poe has a concussion, but Rose is on the mend, and to that end she and Finn have a conversation.

Some part of Rey wonders if she should be jealous, but it’s an abstract, fleeting thought. When Finn comes out and reaches for Rey’s hand, it passes. It is replaced, instead, by a warm feeling that suffuses her whole being.

**Day Four**

Nothing happens this day. After the flurry of action of the past several days, and with the distress signal still being broadcast across the galaxy, this weighs heavily on everyone on the base. Like the sparks of hope have failed to catch flame.

Rey finds herself avoiding everyone, instead retreating to the _Falcon_ to read the texts she’d retrieved from Luke. They are concepts she can barely understand in a language she can barely comprehend. It is frustrating, like everything else on this day seems.

Rey’s concentration is broken by Leia, who catches her by surprise.

“Anything good?” Leia asks.

It’s not exactly a riveting read. Rey shakes her head, frowning.

Leia shrugs. There’s something about the way her fingers trail over the _Falcon_.

Leia catches Rey watching her. “When you get to a certain age, almost everything becomes a memory.”

It sounds like something Luke would say.

“Why didn’t you train as a Jedi?” Rey asks. She might be being rude again.

Leia’s face is unreadable. “That wasn’t my place in all this.”

“Do you think it’s mine?”

“I think,” Leia begins, “that Luke would say that’s for you to decide.”

Rey’s already decided.

**Day Five**

The first message comes from Canto Bight. How they have the frequency, nobody knows. (“The Force works in mysterious ways,” Leia says cryptically.) There’s been a revolt, apparently, of the underclasses, and there’s a general agreement that they all have a mutual enemy.

In the coming days, more transmissions trickle in.

“I never doubted it,” Poe says.

Rey believes that.

“We had what we needed,” Leia says.

Rey believes that too.

And Finn? Well Finn is too busy helping Rey figure out how to make a lightsaber.

(Or maybe two).


End file.
